March 27, 2008 - Siemens will launch its first molecular imaging biomarker production facility in Chennai, India.
The new facility will enable the healthcare providers in and around Chennai to access the positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) technology to diagnose patients with life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and cardiac and neurological ailments.
PETNET Solutions, a fully owned subsidiary of Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., operates the largest PET radiopharmacy network with 49 radiopharmacies and distribution centers in the U.S., Korea and the United Kingdom that produce and distribute PET radiopharmaceuticals to hospitals, clinics and research facilities for PET imaging. The new facility in Chennai will produce and supply the required radiopharmaceuticals to hospitals that have positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) facilities, which will help ease the burden of healthcare providers to produce their own radiopharmaceuticals. As a result, the new facility will also reportedly help reduce the cost of nuclear medicine and expand its reach to a wider community.
The new facility will feature a Siemens Eclipse HP cyclotron and will be Siemens’ first molecular imaging biomarker production facility in India. The Eclipse cyclotron will be deployed to manufacture fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), the imaging biomarker used in PET-CT facilities to assist with diagnosis and staging of disease processes and to monitor cellular response to treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
For more information: www.medical.siemens.com